In general, a computer directory may be partitioned into subdirectories that are either hidden or visible. The number of visible subdirectories is generally referred to as the link count. In many systems, the link count needs to be maintained below a maximum limit. The link count may be reported during various operations including statistical calls associated with a partitioned directory from one or more users.
One of the advantages of a partitioned directory is to enable multiple users to simultaneously access content within the partitioned directory. Access to a partitioned directory may include the creation or removal of one or more subdirectories, thereby causing a change to the link count. However, within the directory, its link count should be maintained below a maximum limit while enabling multiple users to access the partitioned directory in parallel. In other words, all the possible modifications, such as creation or removal of subdirectories at any given node of the partitioned directory, have to be accounted for during a read operation associated with the link count.
Accordingly, the link count should be continually updated to ensure that the maximum limit has not been reached. Moreover, the link count may be determined during a statistical call, as described above.
Unfortunately, traversal of the entire partitioned directory by each user is required by the prior art prior to creating a new subdirectory, to determine the link count in order to ensure that the maximum limit associated with the link count has not been reached. Furthermore, traversal of the entire partitioned directory may be required during a statistic call. However, traversal of the entire partitioned directory by each user is disadvantageous because: 1) not only is it time consuming but; 2) it also burdens computer resources associated with each user.
An alternative method to ensure that the link count is less than the maximum limit is to serialize user accesses associated with modifications to the partitioned directory. In this fashion, the user modifying the partitioned directory can track the number of changes and can account for the link count number without having to account for modifications by other users. Unfortunately, serializing user accesses increases the wait time associated with each user and is therefore disadvantageous.